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Music notes: Irene Cara, Backstreet Boys, Donna Lewis, Katy Perry, Sara Bareilles and Madonna

February 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Deadline reports the cause of death for Fame star Irene Cara was natural, caused by arteriosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Mayo Clinic notes the illness stresses the heart due to high blood pressure and plaque buildup in arteries. Cara, who was 63, died November 25.

The Backstreet Boys are releasing a tribute book honoring their 30th anniversary. It’ll feature tour photography, profiles of the band, memories from fans, a forward from Melanie “Sporty Spice” Chisholm and more. Backstreet Boys 30th Anniversary Celebration comes out April 11 and is available for preorder online.

Donna Lewis put a twist on her 1996 hit by teaming up with Digital Farm Animals for “ILYAF (I Love You Always Forever).” Donna said in a statement her ’90s hit was reimagined and reworked, adding she is “excited about this brand new version.”

Katy Perry and fiancé Orlando Bloom attended Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi‘s surprise vow renewal, which was supposed to be a 50th birthday party for Portia. Katy and Orlando were among a crowd of famous faces at the event, which People says included Meghan Markle, Prince Harry and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Speaking of Katy, Miranda Kerr sang her praises on social media. Kerr was previously married to Orlando and they share a 12-year-old son named Flynn. The model shared clips of them on TikTok and wrote, “When you love your son’s step mom [sic].”

Sara Bareilles saluted her sister Jennifer on her birthday. “There is nobody more loyal, funny, fair, generous, tender, kind, intelligent, or beautiful in the damn world. I love her and look up to her more than I can say to her face because we grew up Catholic and it’s hard to talk about feelings with each other because it feels like a direct threat,” she joked.

Madonna will present at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, according to Variety‘s sources. It is unknown what award she’ll present.

Kevin Cronin introduces REO Speedwagon fans to new keyboardist

February 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

REO Speedwagon keyboardist Neal Doughty retired last month after 55 years with the band, and now the group is introducing fans to his replacement, Derek Hillard.

“Hi friends, those of you who have caught any of our 2023 shows may have noticed a new face behind the keyboards,” frontman Kevin Cronin writes on Instagram, introducing Hillard. “Coincidentally Neal and Derek met several years ago when Derek was playing in Iron Butterfly. After that show, Neal approached the young keyboardist and complimented his playing; Derek has never forgotten that encounter.”

Cronin shares that Hillard has previously toured with Whitesnake, Foreigner and most recently Rick Springfield, who he worked with for 15 years. Cronin noted that Rick gave him a glowing recommendation.

“Derek is a bit younger than the rest of us, (who isn’t :), grew up listening to REO Speedwagon, and is a long-time fan of Neal’s keyboard work,” Cronin shares. “He is a perfect fit, and fits right in with our band vibe.”

Finally he writes, “While Neal is certainly irreplaceable, Derek is an extremely gifted keyboardist and a fine singer, who brings renewed enthusiasm to our band. We will carry on, continue to raise the bar musically, and have fun in the process.”

REO Speedwagon is currently on tour and hit Cherokee, North Carolina, on Friday.

One day at a time: Jamie Lee Curtis celebrates 24 years of sobriety

February 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

On her Instagram, Oscar-nominated Everything Everywhere All at Once star Jamie Lee Curtis celebrated a major milestone: nearly a quarter century of sobriety.

“8760 DAYS OF SOBRIETY = 24 YEARS,” Curtis captioned her post, which was next to a picture of her hand holding her landmark sober coin — and her cute white poodle-mix pooch.

“There are so many people who are in the prison of addiction,” Jamie continued. “Through recovery rooms all over the world. I’ve been able to find myself again. Safe. Satisfied. Strong. Steady. For anyone struggling today in that prison, I woke up today sober as an example that it is possible and that there is help for you and hands reaching out to offer you a step up into the light!”

She also credited her sister and a colleague with offering those hands of help: “The community of people in recovery have been amazing,” Curtis concluded.

The actress has been very vocal about her sobriety. In 2018, the Halloween series star revealed to People that her addiction to pain pills began in the late ’80s and lasted 10 years.

“I was ahead of the curve of the opiate epidemic,” she said at the time. “I had a 10-year run, stealing, conniving. No one knew. No one.”

She says she was initially prescribed opiates after minor plastic surgery “for my hereditary puffy eyes” and soon began abusing the painkillers, even stealing pills from friends and family.

In 1999, she sought help and attended her first recovery meeting, she told the magazine.

Curtis’ family has a long history of addiction. Her father, actor Tony Curtis, battled alcohol, cocaine and heroin addictions, and her half-brother Nicholas Curtis died of a heroin overdose in 1994.

Pink reveals she sang with Kelly Clarkson for an hour for Monday’s episode of ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show’

February 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Pink will be Monday’s guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show and revealed the episode will delight a lot of fans. Why? They’re going to sing together.

Pink shared a teaser of the upcoming episode and captioned it, “I [heart] @kellyclarkson and had so much fun singing with her for an hour of Songs & Stories on @kellyclarksonshow.”

Based on several other clips posted on the show’s YouTube, it appears Pink will go over her music catalog with Kelly and explain the meaning behind some of her greatest songs. Not only that, the two will also perform them together.

One clip has Pink reflecting on her 2017 song “What About Us” and what she was thinking when she wrote it. The singer recalled thinking, “We’re not listening to each other right now and it’s so loud and so gross and angry. And people are being forgotten. And people are being counted out and their rights are being trampled on just because a group of people doesn’t believe in them.”

Pink added she didn’t understand “how so many people in this world are discounted because one group of people decided they don’t like that.”

“I won’t have it,” she added of the song’s significance, which is her raising her voice to make a positive difference. “One person can change a lot.”

Pink revealed in another teaser what was going through her mind when she created her new album, TRUSTFALL. She spoke about how she felt the world was ending because of the pandemic and other heartaches, so she decided, “If we are sliding sideways off the axis, let’s dance.”

Check The Kelly Clarkson Show website for channel information and when to watch Monday’s episode.

Bonnie Raitt, ABBA & more competing for multiple Grammy Awards Sunday

February 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

The Grammys are finally happening Sunday in Los Angeles and several of your favorite artists are in the running this year.

Bonnie Raitt is up for four awards, including Song of the Year for “Just Like That,” which is her first-ever nomination as a songwriter. The tune is also up for Best American Roots Song, while the album Just Like That… is nominated for Best Americana Album and “Made Up Mind” is nominated for Best Americana Performance.

Competing against Raitt for Best Americana Album is Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raise the Roof. The album’s track “High and Lonesome” is also in the running for Best American Roots Song, while “Going Where the Lonely Go” is up for Best Country Duo/Group Performance.

ABBA is up for four awards, including two in the major categories: “Don’t Shut Me Down” for Record of the Year and Voyage for Album of the Year. They are also up for Best Pop Vocal Album for Voyage and Best Pop/Duo Group Performance for “Don’t Shut Me Down.” Should they pick up a win in any category, it will be the Swedish band’s first Grammy.

Other nominees include Diana Ross‘ Thank You, up for Best Pop Traditional Vocal Album; Elvis Costello & The Imposters‘ The Boy Named If up for Best Rock Album; and Bryan Adams‘ “So Happy It Hurts” up for Best Rock Performance.

The 65th annual Grammy Awards, hosted by Trevor Noah, air Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

“You’re dying, brother”: Steve-O tries to reach ‘Jackass’ co-star Bam Margera about addiction

February 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

While the Jackass gang was famous for performing death-defying stunts, Steve-O fears there’s one situation his friend and fellow co-star Bam Margera won’t escape: addiction.

Steve-O, born Stephen Gilchrist Glover, has been clean and sober for 15 years, and he implored Margera to reverse course; the latter has battled addiction for years without success.

On Thursday night, Steve-O appeared onstage with Margera at a live event; Steve-O said taking Bam on his comedy tour was an attempt to get Margera back on the straight and narrow. However, Steve-O later lamented it was short-lived.

Hours after the pair posed at the start of the show, Steve-O posted a plea to Instagram when he apparently learned Margera fell off the wagon.

The message was subsequently deleted, but not before fans grabbed a screen cap. “Bam, last night you had your five year old son with you on stage at my show, and you were blessed with the chance to spend another day or two with him — then as soon as you left my show, you stayed up all night getting loaded,” Steve-O claimed.

“You say you want to have a relationship with your son, but your actions guarantee the exact opposite will happen … I’ve tried everything I can but I can’t force you to get honest and do the work of recovery,” he continued.

Steve-O added, “I wish you could know how much I’ve hated feeling braced for news of your death, but you’re making it clear that I have no other choice. You’re dying, brother, and it sucks that I can’t do anything to save you.”

There was no apparent response from Bam, but many of his fans implored him to straighten up.

Harrison Ford says he doesn’t get the movie star treatment on set

February 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

While he certainly deserves it, considering his movies have made more than $9.3 billion worldwide, Harrison Ford says he doesn’t get movie legend treatment on set.

The 80-year-old star of 1923 and the upcoming fifth Indiana Jones film, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, appeared on Live! With Kelly and Ryan on Friday. He was asked if his resume makes him intimidating for cast and crew.

“The answer is no,” Ford said. “People treat me just like an ordinary person.” And while some stars of his stature have been known to lord over productions, Ford has no such appetite. “I do like to be directed, by almost anyone,” he added with a smile.

Ford also gave a taste of his final Indy adventure, which is set in 1969. “When we find him, he’s on his last day at Hunter College as a professor, and the story goes on from there.”

Kelly Ripa underlined, “So he’s about to retire … and all hell breaks loose?”

“It does, yeah,” Ford said with a laugh.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny also stars Ford’s Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade co-star John Rhys-Davies, Boyd Holbrook, Mads Mikkelson and Emmy winner Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The Lucasfilm movie from director James Mangold opens June 30.

Lucasfilm is a subsidiary of Disney, the parent company of ABC News.

Steven Van Zandt makes deal with Primary Wave Music

February 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Steven Van Zandt is teaming up with independent music publisher Primary Wave Music in a new deal that encompasses the E Street Band member’s music publishing and recorded music catalogs.

The multimillion dollar deal includes Little Steven’s name and likeness rights, as well as a stake in producer royalties. That will encompass his work with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, like “I Don’t Want To Go Home” and “This Time it’s For Real,” and with Bruce Springsteen on such albums as The River and Born in the U.S.A., and songs like “Hungry Heart” and “Dancing in the Dark.”

“Couldn’t be more excited to explore this partnership,” Van Zandt shares. “They have an incredible track record for being creative and proactive. Looking forward to seeing what kind of fun we can have with these songs I’m still really proud of.”

Van Zandt is currently on tour with Springsteen and the E Street Band. They play Atlanta, Georgia, Friday.

Joe Elliott spent most of the Mötley Crüe/Def Leppard tour in isolation

February 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Def Leppard spent last summer on tour with Mötley Crüe, and while you’d think there’d be a lot of partying going on behind the scenes, Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott says the threat of COVID kept that from being the case.

“The safest way for us to keep that show on the road was just to avoid human beings as best we could,” he tells Classic Rock. “So all of us in Leppard traveled separately, which is the smartest decision we made. I didn’t stay in hotels. I lived on the bus, just me and Dale, my driver, in total isolation.“

He adds, “That’s the price of doing business in 2022. If we cancel a stadium show in Arlington, Texas at four in the afternoon, people will have travelled hundreds of miles and spent hundreds of dollars to get there. So we avoided contact, we tested every day, and it worked. We didn’t lose one gig.”

And for all those who expected backstage to be one big party, Elliott notes, “You know, we act like children on stage but we’re actually quite responsible people when we need to be.”

And Elliott’s getting ready to do it all again. Their tour with Mötley Crüe relaunches February 10 and 11 in Atlantic City, before heading to Mexico City, Mexico, February 18. A complete list of dates can be found at defleppard.com.

Jay-Z renews partnership with Bacardi following legal battle over D’USSÉ brand

February 3, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Jay-Z and Bacardi have come to an agreement following their legal battle over the D’USSÉ brand. The entrepreneur will be renewing his partnership with Bacardi.

Per the terms of the deal, Bacardi will acquire a majority interest in D’USSÉ, while Jay will retain a “significant ownership stake” in the brand.

“Growing D’USSÉ over the past decade from an idea to one of the fastest-selling spirits in history has been a blessing,” he said in a statement. “The next phase of this journey will further cement D’USSÉ’s legacy as one of the world’s most respected brands. I am excited to renew this partnership with Bacardi.”

The news of the Jay/Bacardi deal follows a legal battle in which the rapper sued the spirits company for lack of transparency, especially in regard to DUSSÉ’s valuation, Vibe reports. Jay later offered a $1.5 billion buyout, but he was denied. Bacardi claimed he doubled the price instead of honoring his deal to sell his share in D’USSÉ.

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